Vikki Walls produces a number of summer festivals that take place in the lovely beach town of Dewey Beach, Delaware, and our Account Team Manager, Benjy, recently connected with her as she prepares for the 2010 season. Listen to Vikki’s advice on what makes an emerging act stand out and how you can make the most of a Dewey event booking. And check out the opportunities here:

Chickfest: http://www.sonicbids.com/deweybeachchickfest
High Tide Jamfest: http://www.sonicbids.com/deweybeachhightidejamfest
Popfest: http://www.sonicbids.com/deweybeachpopfest
Dewey Beach Music Conference & Festival: http://www.sonicbids.com/deweybeach

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I’m a pretty cheap guy. This doesn’t seem to help much in the dating scene, but can quite useful as a musician — instruments cost hundreds of dollars a piece and unless you’ve reached a certain level of success, it’s difficult to pay that back quickly, if at all. So, when starting out you’ll want to minimize your costs as much as possible while gradually increasing your presence both locally and (inter)nationally. I’ve found quite a few ways to do so, and thought I’d share them. Obviously the possibilities are endless, so feel free to comment here and share your ideas as well.

a) Take advantage of friends and students
Hiring big names for collaborations is great for quick exposure, but if you’re short on cash, there are alternatives. Friends, local contacts and students are great ones for several reasons:

1) They (in most cases) know you already, so you can form a personal relationship in addition to a professional one
2) They may even be more motivated to help out (students in particular – see below)
3) They are less expensive to hire

If you have a brother who’s a marketing genius, for instance, perhaps try to get him on board to help you with marketing your project and creating your brand.
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Another in the series of great audio interviews with Sonicbids members. Learn what they do, how they use Sonicbids to get selected for great opportunities, and get their music out there.

Hailing from Kitchener, Ontario, Allister Bradley has seen great success as a songwriter over the past few years. Allister’s compositions have garnered numerous awards and placements in songwriting competitions around the world, as well as in film and radio. Allister, who has previously described his style as “Sting having cocktails with Norah Jones, while Billy Joel and Bruce Hornsby argue over the check,” recently took home the grand prize (and two other top prizes) in Mike Pinder’s SongWars Songwriting Competition with his song “What A Day.”

With two albums under his belt and another on the way, as well as numerous awards and accolades, this Canadian composer, performer, and producer is clearly on the right path. I caught up with Allister to discuss his career, Sonicbids, SongWars, and why it literally pays to follow up on your submissions.

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http://www.sonicbids.com/allisterbradley

…and then there were two.

Yesterday I posted on our blog about my current gripe with the marketing of young acts in the music industry. I had called for a renaissance of creative music marketing, utilizing new technology and innovation in conjunction with social media tools, after noticing quite a bit that young bands have been resorting to social media, which does help quite a bit with boosting initial presence but prevents them from really standing out as original artists. I wanted to continue that discussion over here and post some helpful tips, ideas and help brainstorm a bit about some other great ways to creatively promote new bands. I realize that each of these ideas won’t work for everyone, but it’s more intended to be a starting point for a discussion on other creative ideas you might have.

Let’s begin!
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Enter Your Music Video Into The International Songwriting Competition (ISC)

Entering your music video into the International Songwriting Competition is easy – it’s just a click away on Sonicbids. If you’re looking for exposure for your music, this is an excellent opportunity to get your video into the hands of the people who make the decisions at MTV, VH1, and record labels. ISC accepts videos of original songs only. Videos can be any style, including live performance. All genres of music are accepted. There are two ways to enter your video on Sonicbids: either upload it to your Sonicbids Supersonic EPK or put on the entry form the URL where it can be viewed (you don’t even need to upload it!).

ISC awards over $150,000 in cash and prizes, including a $25,000 cash prize to the Overall Grand Prize winner – the largest cash Grand Prize in any songwriting competition.
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If you’ve ever thought that getting your music played on the radio was the end-all be-all of the music business, you would have been right several years ago. When radio was at its peak, it meant absolutely everything to be on the radio. In today’s industry, we’ve seen the radio’s presence diminish, but this does not mean that it can’t be a helpful tool for getting your music out there. Yes, it may still be difficult to get your tunes on one of the major radio stations in your area, but college radio is a great way to make your first appearance on the airwaves.

Many college radio stations are always eager to add emerging artists, especially if you’re from the area. Almost all major colleges and universities have radio stations at this point, and each station is filled with shows spanning almost every genre imaginable. College students are always eager to help out a local band, and when there isn’t a specific show playing, you can always just get added to their regular rotation. Try getting in touch with your local college radio stations to see if they would be interested in featuring your music. Here’s a site that I found after some quick browsing that might help you get started.

Just these past few weeks, I’ve seen several local artists gain quite a bit of recognition around their respective areas (in this case, Boston) because they have been featured on college radio. (more…)

Awhile ago I posted a video here on the Lounge advising artists to make a “Band Information Pamphlet” for their next show.  A few artists contacted me via Twitter about the idea and what their results using it were.  Sonicbids artist Chris Hodges even mailed me a copy of the one he put together using an MS Word template which he printed at Office Max for $0.38 apiece.  Chris also improved on the concept by including a slip of paper for fans to fill in their email address with instructions to  drop it in the tip jar.  Check out the video for a closer look: